EDITORIAL: A scientist in charge By The Times-PicayuneDecember 26, 2008 http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1230272520195690.xml&coll=1 President-elect Barack Obama has made several high-level appointments that could impact our region -- including naming New Orleans native Lisa Jackson to head the Environmental Protection Agency. But Ms. Jackson won't be the only official in the incoming administration with a strong knowledge of [...]

EDITORIAL: A strategy for the dead zone By The Times-PicayuneDecember 26, 2008 http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1230272514195690.xml&coll=1 Little progress has been made in curbing nutrient pollution that causes the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, and a National Research Council report blames a lack of coordination among federal agencies and states. The criticism is on target. No single agency is [...]

Report sounds alarm on Gulf of Mexico dead zone By Chris KirkhamDecember 22, 2008; The Times-Picayunehttp://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1229926823221940.xml&coll=1 After years of piecemeal efforts to reduce Mississippi River pollution that leads to the Gulf of Mexico's annual "dead zone" disturbance, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Agriculture Department need to take quick action in pinpointing and reducing [...]

Again, it's time to kill the dead zone By Houma Courier, OpinionDecember 15, 2008http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20081215/OPINION/812159969/1030?Title=Again__it_s_time_to_kill_the_dead_zone In June, we urged federal environmental agencies to take immediate action to stop the pollution that travels down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico, depriving thousands of miles of water along Louisiana’s coast of the oxygen needed to support [...]

New Initiative Focuses on Water Quality Improvement in the Mississippi River Basin and Gulf of MexicoDecember 8, 2008; St. Louis; PRNewswire-FirstCallhttp://monsanto.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=668 - Monsanto Company launches new effort to help reduce nutrients and sediments in agricultural runoff by partnering with The Nature Conservancy, Iowa Soybean Association, Delta Wildlife and The National Audubon Society on conservation projects [...]

Monsanto gift to finance farm river pollution study By Philip BrasherDecember 9, 2008; Des Moines Registerhttp://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008812090358 Washington, D.C. - Monsanto Co. is giving about $5 million to the Iowa Soybean Association and several conservation groups to study methods of preventing farm runoff from polluting the Mississippi River.Some of the work will target the watersheds of [...]

Inside The World's Superdumps By William Pentland12-02-2008, Forbes.comhttp://www.forbes.com/logistics/2008/12/02/garbage-waste-landfills-biz-logistics-cx_wp_1202dumps.html From toxic trash in China to mountain-sized landfills in Michigan, the world is awash in waste. FORBES.com   And this is the magazine that wrote Nancy Rabalais and Gene Turner up for being the “darlings of the environmental community” for their Blasker award in 1991. Waste Management [...]

Marine dead zones set to expand rapidly By Quirin Schiermeiernaturenews.com; 14 November 2008http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081114/full/news.2008.1230.html Rising levels of carbon dioxide could increase the volume of oxygen-depleted 'dead zones' in tropical oceans by as much as 50% before the end of the century — with dire consequences for the health of ecosystems in some of the world's most [...]

Last chance for the oceans? By John VidalThe Guardian Weekly; November 12th, 2008Marine protection zones may be the only answer as climate change and factory fishing turn the world's seas into dead zones. It was summer 2002 when fishermen between the towns of Florence and Lincoln on the north-west Pacific coast of the US began [...]

Hypoxia: Fact or Fiction? By Larry Stalcup,Oct 1, 2008; Corn & Soybean Digesthttp://cornandsoybeandigest.com/ag-issues/1015_hypoxia_fact_fiction/index1.html You are being blamed for the hypoxia dead zone, even though nitrogen (N) use has not increased since 1980. The dead zone, which is said to be draining the life out of more than 8,000 sq. mi. of the Louisiana and Texas [...]